The Confessional Church, winning design by GRAFT, lies in the landscapes of Wuensdorf. Until the fall of the Iron Curtain, this beautiful area in Germany, occupied by the Russian Army headquarters, was left alone to flourish. Today, it is the site of an enormous new development for health, sports and recreation which is currently underway. The competition called for a spiritual center – a church for confession but designed as multi-functional space – possibly used as an opera house or assembly hall.

The background of the location required that the architects question the value of the traditional form, existing typologies and institutionalized solutions for the project. GRAFT aimed to offer the proposal which would provide a new framework for very complex and various forms of belief systems. They advocated positive change and inclusion instead of exclusionary practices of the traditional religious establishments.

What they wanted to avoid in GRAFT is a clear and fixed typology for a church, mosque or theater, which would dominate the shape of the building. On contrary, the architects used those directions to inform the design, in order to create a new typology. The outcome is the building whose formal language communicates different religions and visual typologies, without being literal. Read the rest of this entry »

This project of a Model Home Gallery by NADAAA Inc, is designed for Seoul, South Korea, where the study, design and sales of housing have developed into a discipline serving an ascendant middle class with amenities and technologies that are significantly sophisticated. As a direct product of society we live in, the Model Home Gallery is adapted to house all the needs of consumer society, therefore offering not only sales offices with model homes, but also a large variety of public amenities, such as art galleries, restaurants, cafes, auditorium and other public open spaces which would bring in the residents of the area, in order to expand the customer base and boost the housing economy.

As we are living in an era of iconic architecture, we are witnessing the rise of architectural spectacles even in the housing market. Being the dominant approach, highly themed icons and surfaces serve as a mask for typologically simple diagrams. Normative requirement for these types of buildings ask for public base which supports a black box of exhibition space for full-scale models above. Read the rest of this entry »

Monumental and golden, Emporia, designed by Wingardhs, is an architectural statement – a shopping mall for Malmo, Sweden, is actually an urban planning project which further includes offices, housing and retail spaces on the Hyliie Boulevard 19, on the south side of Sweden capital. The project is the winning entry for the competition and the main idea was to hide inward-looking retail behind a wreath of residential and commercial buildings. The aim was to create the preconditions so the whole shopping complex would eventually become fully integrated into the existing city fabric.

The strong form was needed in order to attract visitors from Station Square to come and spend money. The composition is bronze-ochre combination of vaults from the previous competition proposal along with a memory from the Pantheon. Double-bent glass encloses the diagonal slit that cuts through the building. Here the weather of the Öresund Strait, its fast-moving clouds chasing glimpses of sun, becomes present and tangible.

The development is colossal and it will be built in parts – for now, only one part of Emporia is completed – the corner building with the Amber Entrance, a gate which would be, at the end, the only visible part of the shopping mall. The retail will further be organized around a figure eight pattern which will cover three floors and the shops will be grouped around atriums with different themes. Read the rest of this entry »

The Parabola Chair designed by Carlo Aiello Design Studio in Los Angeles was recently named an “instant classic” by Fast Company Magazine. The chair won the 2013 ICFF Studio Award and has been recently selected by the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design for the exhibit New West Coast Design 2 opening on October 26, 2013.

If you are in Southern California, the Parabola Chair will be exhibited at the West Edge Design Fair in Santa Monica October 3-6, 2013. The show is open to the trade and public and is expected to become a major destination for design connoisseurs.

The design intention of the Parabola Chair was to create a simple and porous yet highly sculptural chair. The challenge was to achieve a single surface that serves as seating, armrest, and backrest supported by a minimal structure. Although the chair exhibits curvatures in two directions (hyperbolic paraboloid) all its components are straight and easy to manufacture. In order to achieve perfect comfort both curvatures were carefully calibrated to hold the body in the best position.

Material: Brushed stainless steel
Dimensions: W= 35″, L= 40″, H= 37″

The Parabola Chair is in production and can be order at: www.carloaiello.com Read the rest of this entry »

Zaha Hadid Architects participated in an international competition in Astana, Kazakhstan, to design the facilities for the international exhibition, scheduled for 2017. The theme of the expo aims to raise awareness of energy resources, energy efficiency and environmental protection as well as to seek innovative engineering and architectural solutions to critical global issues. The symbol of EXPO-2017 will be the monument which will outlive the exhibition and will be immediate landmark of Astana.

Zaha Hadid Architect’s proposal for EXPO-2017 Astana placed energy efficiency, renewable energy technologies and sustainability at the forefront of the design. The result of the process, which consisted of thoughtful analysis of cultural and physical landscape of Kazakhstan, traditional patterns and ornaments, is informal fluid interface of urban pattern, landform and architecture inspired by combination of local culture and renewable technologies.

The proposed urban grid came logically and the urban morphology evolved forming a multiplicity of geometries and orientations that connect to adjacent areas. Building mass is fluid and the contour addresses the neighboring urban conditions, height regulations and importance of adjoining streets. Read the rest of this entry »